If this is July, it must be time for our annual return to the Stanford Alumni Association’s Sierra Camp. We first started going back in 1982, when Michael was just four months old and John was not yet five years. Now they’re college grads, married, and well into careers. Decades. My god. Despite all those visits, we never tire of it. This is where we get the chance to bring a changing cast of extended family, and friends, to our favorite spot on earth. This year we again had Mom, and also Tina, my sister-in-law, also from Indy.
The weather was absolutely superb. Cloudless, until the last day or so, always balmy in the high 70’s, almost no wind the whole time. Bad for sailing, but very nice for everything else. Looking across Fallen Leaf Lake, that’s Cathedral Peak to the left (it looms over the Camp, which is in the trees at the extreme left) and Mt. Tallac with the snow on the right.
As usual, the girls spent a lot of time in the art and craft sessions. Under threat of severe sanctions, no pictures of those activities, as Loni seemed always to open her mouth just as I snapped the shutter. They all did great work in every session.
I joined a fairly rigorous hike on the 2nd day, Monday, which, at 6400+ feet, was a bit too soon for this sea-level dweller. We puffed and panted our way up the Eagle Falls trail to one of the Velma Lakes, all in the Desolation Wilderness just SW of Tahoe. Tons of water this year from the late and heavy winter snows, with rivers and streams where we don’t usually find them. My legs were leaden by the time we got back.
On Tuesday, Loni came along on a stroll hike on the Rubicon Trail. Note: despite the staff hiking leader’s misimpression, this is NOT the famed Jeep trail. However, it starts at Emerald Bay, and ends at Rubicon Bay, close to where the vehicular one finishes, so they share the name. This trail is about 5 miles long, and skirts the shore of Lake Tahoe almost the entire way. In the summertime, it’s very popular with seemingly every tourist in the basin. The parking lots were full up, so we had to backtrack along highway 89 to park along the roadway and then hike back to the trailhead.
We had about a dozen in our group, so the conversation was lively all the way. Many of the “oldtimers,” like ourselves, have stopped coming as their families aged. We miss seeing them, but it’s good to meet new faces. The hike is fairly easy, without any real elevation gain, except for rolling climbs and drops that get you a couple hundred feet above the lake. It’s a beautiful hike, despite not being true wilderness.
The paddlewheeler is a tour boat out of South Lake Tahoe, and was just exiting Emerald Bay. Tahoe retains its remarkably clear water, given all the development that has sprung up around all shores. Kudos to the Tahoe Basin Management Unit and related entities for the good fight to impose strict development controls on waste and runoff. It has preserved pristine views like this:
Even a stroll hike deserves a rest stop. This is where we broke for lunch. Even PB&J tastes good in this setting. (I’m smiling, honest; I just have a crooked face!)
Wednesday is the traditional beach games day at camp. No tug-of-war this year, but the usual limbo contest, egg-throwing competition, water-skiing demos (not particularly successful) by the staff. We make a beeline for the shade. The UV rating at that altitude is brutal. Games day is always a favorite of Mom, because that’s the day she can get a hot dog! There must be something to them, ‘cause at 88 she’s still going strong.
Although still pretty lively for her years, Mom has had to make some accommodations. Even without the high altitude she gets winded on lengthy walks. But we wanted her to see the local waterfalls which are about 3/4 of a mile up the road (and up a hill). This is probably the biggest runoff year in decades, and the falls are at their peak. We got her to agree to attempt it, as long as she could bring her folding “golfer’s” chair along to rest along the way. We just went very slowly and stopped to examine every bit of flora that we saw. Eventually we got her hauled up the rocks and she thought the view was well worth it. You can see two figures, center and right, in the middle of the falls. They turned out to be an incredibly athletic brother-sister pair (their parents and grandparents were watching next to us) who were climbing all over the falls (they went up the center rocks from this point). All I could think of was the recent tragedies in Yosemite at Vernal Falls. Fortunately, this pair made it over, around, and off the falls without mishap.
She’s, uh, pretty scenic, huh?
For us, no trip to Camp is complete without a visit to our favorite trail, the wildflower hike from Carson Pass to Lake Winnemucca. Mom last did this with us when she was 82. We took off on Thursday morning, bailing the car out from the parking area and making the one hour drive from Camp to the Pass. This is a gorgeous hike every year, and with the retained snow packs, was even more spectacular this time around. Lake Winnemucca lies at the base of the left side of that mountain (Round Top) behind us.
Because of the late winter, the flowers were just beginning to sprout, and then mostly near the beginning of the trail at Frog Lake (below). We saw some iris there, and elsewhere lots of mule’s ear, lupen, and other things I can’t identify. I think Frog Lake is really a nifty spot.
We did encounter some snow packs along the trail, but nothing that posed any problems other than the occasional slip and slide. There was a lot of pinkish algae (or something) on the snow that showed up much more visibly through polarized sunglasses. Amazing how stuff grows everywhere.
The trail is about 2 1/2 miles each way, with only 600 feet of elevation gain from the trailhead at the pass, so it’s pretty much a stroll again, albeit starting at 8,500 feet. That’s why we leave it for the end of the week, when we’re more acclimated. The goal is the ultimate serenity of lunch and a nap at the lake. This year, for the first time in our memory, there was a huge ice flow stretching across the center of the lake. Unlike years past, we didn’t see anyone this time jumping into the water off the rocks on the far side. Yeah, do you think I love it?
Right at this shot, the batteries in the camera expired, and yours truly hadn’t thought to pack spares. I had about twenty of them back at the cabin. No boy scout, me!
Camp is many things. Our children, and just about everyone else’s in this week, grew up here. There are always kid’s groups charging about on one adventure or the other, the egg drop contest is the usual mess, the staff “talent” show and water ballet is hit or-miss (almost all “hit” this year!), the food, especially desserts, is generally scrumptious, and the pure peace of the place is heavenly.
Yeah, Mom. Family Camp. It’s like grabbing your own personal sunbeam.
No comments:
Post a Comment